Question about the off-week for 5A and 6A

[gindie]

Just curious...Does anybody know/remember the reasoning for having the off-week at the beginning of the tournament vs. before the championship game?  You're interrupting a routine of a game each week, but you do get time to heal some injuries.

[Sparty]

Would qualified officials availability come into play?

[Bobref]

1 hour ago, Sparty said:

Would qualified officials availability come into play?

No.

[PDB26]

5 hours ago, gindie said:

Just curious...Does anybody know/remember the reasoning for having the off-week at the beginning of the tournament vs. before the championship game?  You're interrupting a routine of a game each week, but you do get time to heal some injuries.

Can’t remember, but maybe it is this way so that everyone benefits/suffers from the week off instead of just the two finalists.

[Rodney]

2 hours ago, Bobref said:

No.

So there ISNT A SHORTAGE

 

[Yuccaguy]

44 minutes ago, Rodney said:

So there ISNT A SHORTAGE

 

There IS a shortage.  But honestly, having the bye week at the beginning rather than prior to the finals, isn't an impedance to having officials.

Actually, in essence... it is better on all counts to having better schools AND fresher more prepared officials towards the END of the tournament.

[oldtimeqb]

10 hours ago, gindie said:

Just curious...Does anybody know/remember the reasoning for having the off-week at the beginning of the tournament vs. before the championship game?  You're interrupting a routine of a game each week, but you do get time to heal some injuries.

It’s having 32 6A teams (5 weeks) vs 64 for other classes (6 weeks). Everyone gets to finish on Thanksgiving weekend. 

IIRC - First year of 6A, they started week 10 but then the state finalists had two weeks to prepare for final. (Bye semi-state weekend.) That was scrapped the following year. 

[gindie]

24 minutes ago, oldtimeqb said:

It’s having 32 6A teams (5 weeks) vs 64 for other classes (6 weeks). Everyone gets to finish on Thanksgiving weekend. 

IIRC - First year of 6A, they started week 10 but then the state finalists had two weeks to prepare for final. (Bye semi-state weekend.) That was scrapped the following year. 

Thanks.  I am aware of the reason for the bye week.  Just wondering if there was a specific reason to have it the first week of the tournament rather than the week before Thanksgiving. 

[whiteshoes]

Why not let 6A and 5A teams schedule a tenth regular season game?    It makes no sense that the teams with 85 - 100 players get a rest week while kids who play both ways on a team with 28 kids on it never get a break.   I'm sorry, did I try to indicate that a decision made by the IHSAA makes sense?

[oldtimeqb]

33 minutes ago, gindie said:

Thanks.  I am aware of the reason for the bye week.  Just wondering if there was a specific reason to have it the first week of the tournament rather than the week before Thanksgiving. 

They tried the bye during week 14 (SS for 1A-5A) in 2013-15. I guess they didn’t like it? Don’t know why it changed. 

[WCGrad92]

It had something to do with keeping Sectional Finals, Regionals and SS's all at the same time for each Class.  After the 1st year of course.

[JustRules]

16 hours ago, Bobref said:

No.

I believe it may be a contributing factor. There were 117 games last week. If the 5A and 6A games were played, there would have been another 31 games. They would need 148 crews applying to the tournament to cover it. There may only be 130-135 crews who apply. I don't believe it's as high as 148. You would know more than me though. This is strictly for the officials though based on advancement criteria. Some crews would work a sectional final in week 2 for 5A and 6A and be done because that's the round their ranking placed them. But they only got 2 games instead of 3. If they were given a second sectional final game, then another deserving crew wouldn't get a sectional final. None of this ultimately matters to the teams or the games played. But it was a logistical challenge that may have created some chaos for the staff.

IIRC the 5A and 6A teams pushed for it as the primary motivation, but the pending loss of tournament crews was mentioned as a factor.

[Frozen Tundra]

11 hours ago, whiteshoes said:

Why not let 6A and 5A teams schedule a tenth regular season game?    It makes no sense that the teams with 85 - 100 players get a rest week while kids who play both ways on a team with 28 kids on it never get a break.   I'm sorry, did I try to indicate that a decision made by the IHSAA makes sense?

Can’t do that in 5A when there are more than 32 teams like there is this year. There should never be more than 32 when 1A through 4A have less than 64 teams each.

[Bobref]

20 hours ago, Rodney said:

So there ISNT A SHORTAGE

 

We can always use more qualified officials.

[Rodney]

1 minute ago, Bobref said:

We can always use more qualified officials.

Will you personally train me

 

[Bobref]

14 minutes ago, Rodney said:

Will you personally train me

 

I’m 74 yrs. old. I don’t have enough time left to turn you into a good official. 🤣😂

[Rodney]

1 minute ago, Bobref said:

I’m 74 yrs. old. I don’t have enough time left to turn you into a good official. 🤣😂

It should be pretty easy

I have a moral issue with throwing flags so I just won't at all.

Pretty much all I need is an outfit 

 

[Coach Jud]

As physical and grinding as the regular season is (especially in the HCC) we need a bye week to recover!

[crimsonace1]

On 10/27/2025 at 1:43 AM, Frozen Tundra said:

Can’t do that in 5A when there are more than 32 teams like there is this year. There should never be more than 32 when 1A through 4A have less than 64 teams each.

I would like to see - and will probably write if I can get a principal to accept it and propose it - a bylaw stating Classes 6A and 5A will always have 32 teams (unless there are more than 320 schools entered in the tournament, in which 5A will have the remainder), and that 1A-4A can have no more than 64. 

Basically, if moves due to the success factor cause 6A or 5A to have more than 32 teams, the smallest schools will bump down to the next-highest class. If they cause 6A or 5A to have less than 32, then the largest schools will bump up. The other classes' numbers should be adjusted, as well. Basically, the way things were before Lebanon got mad New Pal beat them in softball and caused the current bylaw change (in which a team moving up in the SF doesn't bump the lowest enrollment school down). 

Right now, you can have 3-team sectionals and 5-team sectionals due to success factor moves, and 3-team sectionals make no sense when you're basically giving a team two bye weeks. 

[Frozen Tundra]

24 minutes ago, crimsonace1 said:

I would like to see - and will probably write if I can get a principal to accept it and propose it - a bylaw stating Classes 6A and 5A will always have 32 teams (unless there are more than 320 schools entered in the tournament, in which 5A will have the remainder), and that 1A-4A can have no more than 64. 

Basically, if moves due to the success factor cause 6A or 5A to have more than 32 teams, the smallest schools will bump down to the next-highest class. If they cause 6A or 5A to have less than 32, then the largest schools will bump up. The other classes' numbers should be adjusted, as well. Basically, the way things were before Lebanon got mad New Pal beat them in softball and caused the current bylaw change (in which a team moving up in the SF doesn't bump the lowest enrollment school down). 

Right now, you can have 3-team sectionals and 5-team sectionals due to success factor moves, and 3-team sectionals make no sense when you're basically giving a team two bye weeks. 

1,000% agree with everything you just said. To me, it looks like the IHSAA went the lazy route after last season. Decatur Central had to move up to 6A and Cathedral had to move down to 5A (thanks to the requirement for remaining up a class being changed from 3 points to 2). They just flip-flopped their sectionals even though Decatur Central aligns more with Avon, Brownsburg, and Ben Davis. Pike could’ve taken Cathedral’s place among Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, and North Central.

But the whole reason it looks like they went with 33 in 5A is because they would’ve had to reconstruct multiple sectionals if not. So they added New Palestine to sectional 13 and shifted Whiteland south to sectional 14 to make it a five-team sectional. Otherwise, they would’ve had to drop Fort Wayne North to 4A which would require restructuring multiple 4A and 5A sectionals.

Here’s one example of what it should’ve looked like (changes in bold):

5A

Sectional 11: Goshen, Concord, Warsaw, South Bend Adams

Sectional 12: Lafayette Jeff, McCutcheon, Kokomo, Anderson

Sectional 13: Plainfield, Whiteland, Cathedral, New Palestine

Sectional 14: Franklin, Columbus East, Seymour, East Central

 

4A

Sectional 19: East Noble, DeKalb, Leo, New Haven, Fort Wayne Dwenger, Fort Wayne Wayne, Fort Wayne South, Fort Wayne North

Sectional 20: Huntington North, Culver Academy, Logansport, Marion, Muncie Central, Frankfort, Lebanon, Columbia City

 

The point here is that if the IHSAA is going to have a rolling two-year success factor period then they need to be willing to accept the extra work that will come with it. No lazy sectional restructuring. Put in the work. If not, there are plenty of people on this site that I’m sure would be willing to do it for them.

[Bobref]

On 10/27/2025 at 7:20 AM, Rodney said:

Pretty much all I need is an outfit 

Your wife wears an “outfit.” Officials wear uniforms.

[Rodney]

3 hours ago, Bobref said:

Your wife wears an “outfit.” Officials wear uniforms.

Im never gettin married

Women only want to take half my stuff

[GOLDRUSH1985]

49 minutes ago, Rodney said:

Im never gettin married

Women only want to take half my stuff

I found a women that made more than me(at the time) and we never got married . We have our own accounts and neither asks the other for money . We never argue and have lived together for 29 years . 

[crimsonace1]

On 10/28/2025 at 1:23 PM, Frozen Tundra said:

The point here is that if the IHSAA is going to have a rolling two-year success factor period then they need to be willing to accept the extra work that will come with it. No lazy sectional restructuring. Put in the work. If not, there are plenty of people on this site that I’m sure would be willing to do it for them.

If you're going to have a rolling two-year success factor, at least in football, the real solution is to simply reclassify every year. I know that creates more work, but that would make the most sense. 

[FastpacedO]

On 10/27/2025 at 8:19 AM, Bobref said:

I’m 74 yrs. old. I don’t have enough time left to turn you into a good official. 🤣😂

That my friend is hilarious!!

On 10/27/2025 at 8:20 AM, Rodney said:

It should be pretty easy

I have a moral issue with throwing flags so I just won't at all.

Pretty much all I need is an outfit 

 

So you would be bringing back the Ronnie Lott facemask tackle! 😂